TWO OF THE THREE men charged with the murder of of Irishwoman Michaela Harte in Mauritius have confessed to the crime, it is reported this evening.
Abinash Treeboowoon (28), a room attendant at the Legends Hotel, and his supervisor Sandip Monea (41), both Mauritian natives, have both confessed to killing Harte in her bedroom, RTÉ reports, citing local police.
The two men had been provisionally charged with murder at a court hearing earlier today. A third man, room attendant Raj Theekov (33), had been provisionally charged with conspiracy to murder.
Earlier, Today FM and Newstalk had both quoted Mayessen Nagapachetty, a journalist with Mauritian agency News Now, who said Treeboowoon had admitted to fighting Michaela in her bedroom before pushing her into the bathtub and strangled her.
“He went into the room to rob, and then sometime later he fell face to face with the woman, which is Michaela Harte,” Nagapachetty reported.
“They had a fight together.. and then in the struggle he pushed the woman there, and carried the woman into the bathtub, and strangled her to death.”
RTE’s Drivetime, however, quoted a Mauritian barrister who said it was “quite common” for a defendant in Mauritian cases to retract confessions at a later time, claiming that they had been coerced.
Appearing in court earlier today, Treeboowoon had insisted he was roughly treated by Mauritian police during their questioning.
All three of the men who had appeared in court eralier had been remanded in custody until a week from today, January 19.
Michaela was found in the bathtub by Down footballer John on Monday afternoon; she had returned to the bedroom to retrieve a packet of biscuits when she was attacked and killed.
She and McAveaney had been married on December 30, and had only arrived in Mauritius two days before her death.
TheJournal.ie was unable to find a police officer in Mauritius who was willing to confirm the reports of any confessions.
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